Oil can drain rack



March 4, 1952 M. F. SMITH OIL CAN DRAIN RACK Filed March 8, 1946Patented Mar. 4, 1952 UNITED STATES OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to drain racks for receptacles and moreparticularly to drain racks for oil cans and the like to support the oilcans while they are draining the last few drips of oil.

In the use of oil cans in gas stations, garages and other servicestations, it is customary to dispense oil to the consumer from smallcans of from one quart up to five quart capacities. The oil is deliveredto the engine crank case by piercing the oil cans and draining the oildirectly into the crank case. The oil being quite thick adheres to thewalls of the cans and complete drainage would take up very much time.The customers are generally unwilling to wait for the complete drainagesince the wait only is rewarded by a very small amount of extra oil.Therefore when the oil cans are set aside after servicing an engine, asmall amount of oil will drain to the bottom after a time while thediscarded cans are lying about the service station. Since a large numberof such cans are used about service stations the accumulation of thedrippings of these cans amounts to a sizable amount and it has beenfound economically feasible to collect these drippings.

It is an object of this invention to provide a rack or support for suchoil cans so that the oil remaining in the oil cans may be drained into areceptacle.

Another object of this invention is to provide an oil can drain rackwhich is of a simple construction and may readily be adopted to drainvarious sized oil cans into any one of a variety of collectingreceptacles.

To the foregoing objects, and others which may hereinafter more fullyappear, the invention consists of the, novel construction, combinationand arrangement of parts, as will be more specifically referred to andillustrated in the accompanying drawings, but it is to be understoodthat changes, variations, and modifications may be resorted to whichfall within the scope of the invention as claimed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an oil can drain rack constructedaccording to an embodiment of my invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1. v

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary section of a modified support for the drainrack.

Figure 5 is a horizontal section taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a vertical section taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 4.

Referring to the drawings the numeral I0 designates generally an oil candrain rack constructed according to an embodiment of my invention. Thedrain rack I0 comprises a trough II and support or standard I2 to holdan oil can I4 while it is being drained of the last few remaining dropsof oil.

The trough I I is formed of a pair of walls I5 and I6 joined at theirlower ends to form a V-shaped trough II. An end wall I1 is fixed to theends of, the side walls I5 and I6 to close the end of the trough II, andthe other ends of the trough II are held together by an elongated fiatmetal strip or brace I8 fixed to the sides I5 and I6 at their upperedges in such a manner to form a V-shaped opening I9 at this end of thetrough I I.

Other flat elongated strips as 20 and 2| are provided across the troughII intermediate the length thereof to form supporting bars or membersfor supporting an oil can I4 in the rack III.

A pair of apertured ears 22 are fixed to the sides I5 and [6 of thetrough II midway between the ends thereof to fasten the trough II to asupporting member I2. The supporting member I2 is formed of an elongatedflat strip of metal formed at one end with an apertured lug 23 to engagebetween the ears 22 and a bolt, as 24, fastens the lug 23 and ears 22together so that the trough II may be positioned at any selectedvertical angle to the support I2. The support I2 is formed withvertically spaced apart openings 25 in order that the support I2 may befastened by bolts, or other suitable fastening devices to a standard, as26, or other suitable means for supporting the rack I0.

As a means for fixing the rack I0 to a vertical support I have shown asupport l2 in Figures 1 and 2. In Figures 4 to 6 I have shown a support21 with the lug 23 bent at right angles thereto for supporting the rackto a support horizontally. A U-bolt 28 having wing-nuts 29 may be usedto fix the support 21 to a standard as 26.

The exact configuration illustrated is regarded as the optimum, but someof the desirable results inherent in this disclosure may be obtained byvarious slight modifications including some departure from the exactconfiguration shown, and it is therefore requested that the scope of theinvention should be regarded as limited only by the terms of the claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A drain rack comprising a V-shaped trough open at one end thereof, apair of transverse fiat elongated receptacle supporting stripsintermediate the length thereof spaced from the apex of said trough, apair of downwardly extending apertured spaced apart ears fixed belowsaid trough midway of the length thereof, an elongated L-shaped drainrack supporting bar, means pivotally connecting one leg of said L-shapedsupporting bar between said ears for adjusting the angular dispositionof the length of said trough relative to said supporting bar, andlooking means associated with the pivotal connection for locking saidtrough in a selected angularly adjusted position.

MIKE FRED SMITH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,342,659 Wright June 8, 19201,368,687 Bennetts Feb. 15, 1921 1,481,085 Duchatelet Jan. 15, 19241,748,235 MacDonald Feb. 25, 1930 1,892,992 Moran et a1. Jan. 3, 19332,051,931 Errett Aug. 25, 1936 2 ,071,944 Hoffman Feb. 23, 19372,365,533 Elsebusch Dec. 19, 1944 2,366,529 Hoff Jan. 2, 1945

